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Minister Walter Chidhakwa

Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
THE government has no plans to import power despite shortages in the country because of the depressed regional grid, Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa has said.The minister urged the mining sector to use its “balance sheet” to fund power generation projects.

Speaking at the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe 76th Annual General Meeting and conference here yesterday, the minister appealed to mining companies to also invest in the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) saying this would steer economic recovery.

The conference, which started on Thursday and ended yesterday, is being held under the theme: “Shared Vision, Shared Values, Shared Benefits, the roadmap for Zimbabwe’s Mineral Resource sector”.

“If anyone thinks that there will be power importation from the region, no, that will not happen because everybody in the region including South Africa and Zambia is looking for power,” said Chidhakwa.

“Let’s leverage our balance sheets to produce power and reduce the cost of production. For coal companies, you need to move large deposits and that needs NRZ which is in doldrums. You should sit down and underpin the whole activity. Use your balance sheets to recapitalise NRZ so it can be able to move huge volumes of your coal and chrome and also do the same with energy production.”

The minister said mining companies could engage financial institutions for funding mechanisms.

He said he was engaging the Minister of Energy and Power Development Samuel Undenge to ensure adequate power supplies to the mining sector.

Chidhakwa added that the government had deployed a mobilisation team to establish how the sector was being run.

He said the government expected 22 tonnes of gold to be produced this year from both small scale and large scale miners and 30 tonnes by 2018.

On coal production, he said: “I heard you talking about special mining grants. There are 85 applications for coal mining and the question is, is that doable to have 85 coal mining companies in Matabeleland North? I don’t think that is the way to go. Sit down as a congress and talk about this. We have been discussing as government with a view that we have been extracting coal for so many years using one company.”

Speaking at the same occasion, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the government was in the process of crafting legislation to compel mining companies to release their production data which the government has been failing to get.

“We want to develop a mining fiscal model with the objective of promoting simplicity, optimum mineral extraction and revenue generation and transparency. We can’t finish the process because we only have data from the gold sector while all the other sectors are not forthcoming,” said Chinamasa.

“We’re putting in place legislation to enforce transparency and for the acquisition of data. You’re embarrassing your minister while at the same delaying finalisation of the new mining fiscal regime and consequences will be dire if you’re caught red handed.”